Twenty years and $200,000 in funds raised later, Wendy Graham is preparing for her final fashion show.

"I just feel pleased to have been able to raise a lot of money for Santas Anonymous," said the owner of Sunday's Snowflakes, which is preparing to close its Douglas Street doors for good. "It feels really good and I'm very proud of it."

The annual fashion show, which raises money for Victoria's longest-running children's charity, will be held Saturday afternoon at the Delta Ocean Pointe Resort and Spa.

With Graham finally ready to kick off her designer shoes and relax, it seems not only to be the end of an era for the retailer, but also part of a larger trend.

"I think the thing I've seen — the change in Canadian fashion — is that we hardly have any left," said Graham, who has always specialized in Canadian brands. "When I first started out, there were many, many more Canadian designers. It's just so difficult to keep costs under control. . . . In 30 years, there have been some good and some bad economic times and a number of them just never made it through."

She pointed to one of her brands, Lundström Collection, which Toronto designer Linda Lundström sold to Eleventh Floor Apparel after filing for bankruptcy protection in 2008. Lundström resigned as chief creative officer in 2009, although the company still owns the name.

"It's a shame she left Lundström — she has such an innate talent for design," Graham said. "Canada will miss people like her; it's much more commercial, so to speak."

Graham added that while many of her designers design in Canada, products are often manufactured offshore. Manufacturing in Canada, she said, has "kind of gone the way of the dodo bird."

Simon Chang, a Montreal-based designer and Order of Canada recipient who has made a point of attending longtime friend Graham's fashion show for the past five years, shares her perspective on the industry.

"The good part of [the change] is that it's still very exciting and it's very much more global," he said of fashion. "The sad thing about this, in our industry, is that there's getting to be very few independents — independent owners and smaller, boutique operations. The retail scene is completely dominated by chains.

"And the next bad change is it's going to be dominated by all American chains," he said.

Chang said consumers are less excited about the cookie-cutter fashion options available to them.

"The fashion message is getting too predictable. You go to every mall and it's the same retailer, the same display, the same message."

He said Graham has done something different with Sunday's Snowflakes.

"She knows her customers, she buys according to their needs. And Wendy's philosophy has always been, you know, I've got to be different, I've got to have some pizzazz because I'm not a chain store," he said. "The customer is not just a number; they're addressed by their first name.

"I see how much the customers adore her when they walk into her stores," he said. "If it doesn't look great on you, she'll tell you. That takes a lot of guts for a retailer to do. Nobody wants to lose a sale."

Customers show their loyalty each year by performing modelling duties at the annual fashion show.

"Many of them have been there since Day 1," Graham said.

The show began as a way of getting her name out in public. But long after her Douglas Street store was established, it was still selling out each year, so she continued organizing it for an audience that has grown from 75 to 300.

Of course, there have been many changes over the years — from the fashion, which increasingly targets an older audience as her customers age, to improvements in sound and lighting. "Hopefully, each year we get a touch more professional," she said.

About $8,000 worth of prizes will be up for grabs, donated by Graham's suppliers, including Simon Chang, Lundström, Sympli and others. Tickets are $65 and include lunch. There were five tickets remaining on Monday.

While Graham won't be entirely retired — she still has a small store at Mattick's Farm — she said she's looking forward to finally having some free time.

"It will be nice to have time to do something or do nothing," she said. "I'm quite excited about it."

asmart@timescolonist.com